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>12 year olds [...] are not oppressed minorities facing a long history of brutal discrimination.

No, they absolutely are -- not in a way that really bears on whether they should get married, but seriously, have you been 12? Ever spent five minutes inside a Jr. High?

Being 12 is not a permanent condition, while generally race and sexuality are. While being 12 is not a choice - it's forced on most people - they also generally stop being 12, usually within a year or so of the condition.

When started being 12 when I was 10, and it lasted until I was 14 :(

A child labor analogy would have worked better IMO

The opinion very specifically did _not_ provided any protected status to gays and lesbians.

Persecution had nothing to do with it.

http://rt.com/news/185256-us-unicef-children-homicide/

> The US leads Western nations in child homicide rates, while millions of children around the world are threatened with physical, sexual and emotional abuse, including murder, rape and bullying, a new UNICEF report revealed

I dunno, sounds pretty brutal to me.